This post has some valuable information, for those of you either starting a commercial blog or thinking of taking their existing blog more seriously. It’s about understanding the time investment required, if you want to build a commercially successful blog.

Blogging time

A common misconception regarding blogging, is that the time investment required to build a successful blog, is primarily the time it takes to write posts. Whilst at the very beginning, the time it takes to write your posts accounts for a big chunk of your blogging time, once your blog gets established, the time you spend writing the posts becomes a smaller and smaller percentage. Currently, just 20% of my blogging time is spent writing posts. The majority of my time is spent looking after the elements that come into play, when thousands of people read your content every day and your work becomes highly visible.

That’s what I want to share with you in this post.

A wonderful challenge

It’s a wonderful challenge to have, but one that is seldom discussed. The thing is, if you are thinking of either starting your own commercial blog or you are about to start taking your existing blog seriously, you need to know the kind of time commitment required once your blog takes off. In the case of this blog, it’s a few hours a day now.

When I started Jim’s Marketing Blog, almost 4 years ago, I would invest around 30 minutes writing a post and then an hour a day marketing that post and the blog itself. I would get to know the people who commented here, connecting with them on Twitter and (back then) Friendfeed. It was fun, enjoyable work, but there was a time investment required, which I knew I needed to make if I wanted the blog to progress.

Fast forward 4 years and I still do all of that, though I now use Google+ (a LOT), Twitter and Facebook. However, today I ALSO invest around 2 hours on other blog related activities.

Blog related activities?

As your readership builds and your blog ranks well for lots of popular search terms, you will attract lots more attention. This includes:

Guest bloggers: I also get emails daily from people asking if I will let them ‘guest blog’ here. Because none of them do any research, they are unaware it’s a self-authored blog, so email me anyway.

Reader questions: I get lots of emails every day from readers, with often extremely complex marketing related problems. Whilst I am unable to offer them individual support, I do reply to every reader email.

Advertiser emails: Because of the blog’s position on Google, I get emails all the time from people who want to advertise here.

PR spam: PR firms insist on adding me to their lists, without consent, when sending out their client’s press releases, even though I have never published a press release here. PR spam is easily the biggest source of unwanted email I encounter, with 30/40 emails a day.

N.B: Yes, I know it would be a lot easier for me to just hit delete on every email or have filters set up to try and catch the pitches, PR spam and link requests, but it would mean many genuine, reader emails being lost and I am not prepared to do that.

All in all, I would say that actually writing blog posts is now less than 20% of the time I currently invest in this blog and activities directly related to it.

And in return?

The rewards are many and huge!

If you have the time or can make the time, to handle the feedback created by a successful blog, the pay-off is amazing. Make no mistake, starting this blog was easily the most valuable business decision I ever made and has repaid me many, many times over for what I have invested into it. The benefits of blogging can be stunning, if you manage to develop a large, targeted reader community:

Most important for me is the opportunity to connect with, work with and meet amazing people. The readers of this blog are my biggest commercial asset. I feel like I know many of those who comment here and must have spoken to a couple of hundred of you so far. It’s a true reader community and invaluable to me.

You can contribute to others, in a way that helps hundreds of thousands of other people every year. It’s impossible to overstate the value of this, for those of us who are committed to serving others.

You can build a very enjoyable, 6 figure business from it, as I did here. If affiliate products or software sales are your thing, look at what Brian Clark did with copyblogger, launching several, million dollar businesses off his blog. It just requires skill, time and a LOT of work!

You will attract countless opportunities for you and your business, as your reach and influence increases.

You will also get a massive amount of enjoyment from it.

In short: If you are serious about developing your blog into a massively valuable asset, make sure that you have processes in place, for what happens as your blog takes off.

I was prompted to write this post, after 2 people recently thanked me for publishing their blog comments. They assumed that as their comments disagreed with me, they would be deleted. I am hearing this more and more often, hence the reason I want to bring this out into the open.

Here’s the problem: It seems some well-known blogs refuse to publish comments, if they take an opposing view to the points made in the blog post. Unless a comment is neutral, complimentary or has an argument that can be easily shot down in flames, it’s banned from being published.

Removing critical blog comments

What amazed me, was that in each case these people say they had left comments that were not offensive, but were removed simply because they made a solid argument that was opposed to the view, expressed by the blogger. In my opinion, it shows a total lack of respect (and self-confidence) on the part of the blogger, if they refuse to allow anyone to disagree with them! I believe the blogger also loses a useful learning opportunity, as banning such comments eliminates the opportunity to scrutinize their point more thoroughly.

One of the benefits of a blog is that it is designed for communication, rather than broadcasting. Communication needs to be 2 way or multi-way, which means giving people the right to question you, as well as compliment you or agree. Blog comments allow that to happen, if we let them.

Blog comment policy

Now, I do have a commenting policy on this blog, which is designed to eliminate comment spam and stop people from using this site as a platform for abusing others. You can read it here and you are also very welcome to copy it and use it on your own blog too. However, I warmly welcome you to contribute to anything I write here, if you have something you want to share. That includes expressing a different point of view to mine (so long as we agree my point is always right, of course! 😉 )

Yes, your blog is your own property and you can do whatever you want to with it. However, when you decide to ban people from expressing a different point of view from your own, the word soon gets around. Bloggers don’t need a reputation like that!

I wrote last week about the power of giving. In that post, I said; By helping other people, we begin the process of giving and open the channel for receiving.

One of the ways this manifests itself to me, is through the feedback I get from readers here on the blog.

As well as the comments you see, I also receive emails almost every day, from people who want to thank me for something I have shared here, which has helped them. These range from a quick “thank you,” to detailed information on how they used an idea from one of my posts, to achieve a business breakthrough. I love to receive them.

Readers also send me gifts to show their thanks for the fee information I provide here. These are usually business books, which is great as I am a ferocious reader. I get 1 or 2 books sent to me every week.

However, I also get gifts from readers, which are completely unrelated to business. For example, Irene Koehler from almostsavvy.com sent me a Winnie The Pooh storybook, all the way from California. She did that after reading a post, where I mentioned how I love reading with my young son.

I’ve also been sent cards, flowers, balloons and fruit baskets etc – An extremely diverse range, from great people who simply wanted to show their thanks.

Picture this

I was prompted to write this post today, after Robin Dickinson from Sydney, Australia sent me the amazing charcoal picture you see in this post. As well as being a gifted artist, Robin is also a business consultant and trainer. The picture is Robin’s interpretation of my new Twitter avatar image.

What makes this picture even more amazing, is that Robin has managed to produce a very close likeness, working from just a low quality photo I shot with my camera phone. I believe Robin’s picture is actually closer to the “real” me than the original photo!

Thank you!

Many people only see the blogger giving away his or her expertise, however, that’s just half the story! By working hard to help as many people as possible with this blog, I am repaid every day for what I do and in many different ways.

To everyone who has contributed to this blog in any way, either through; sharing the posts on their social networks, commenting, emailing or sending tokens of appreciation, I’m extremely thankful.

As yesterday’s post was all about content marketing, I thought today would be the perfect time to explain why I invest so much of my time, sharing ideas and insights with you, here on the blog.

Here are 3 reasons that came to mind immediately.

1. As a fellow business owner, I respect you

Only a small minority of people have the courage to start up a business. Whilst there is no ceiling on what you can earn when you are your own boss, there’s no floor either! It takes guts to leave the regular world of salaried employment, for the uncertainty of working for yourself. You are my kind of person. We both started out with no guarantees, yet we did it anyway.

It’s a LOT easier writing for people, when they have earned your respect.

2. I value you and what you have to say

Successful blogging is all about communication, rather than broadcasting. It’s about the 2-way or multi-way flow of information between people. Whilst I give a lot of valuable information away here, I receive a lot too.

Your comments, emails, tweets and Facebook messages etc, are of huge value to me. Through them, I have met people I would never have known. I have discovered answers and insights, that have been invaluable. I have found fantastic websites, which I had never heard of before. I have discovered products and services, which have been of enormous value to me and my business.

Most importantly, I have made a lot of friends all over the world. If you are a reader of the blog and have not got in touch with me, please do so. I reply to every email and phone call. You can email me at jim (at) jimsmarketingblog.com

3. Blogging is commercially rewarding

Business blogging, when handled correctly, can be extremely rewarding for your business. For instance, by focusing on providing you with as much useful, valuable information as I can, I attract valuable business inquiries all the time.

A perfect example of this happened yesterday. Yesterday’s post was all about content marketing and at the very end of the post, I mentioned that I am launching a new, content marketing program. That post alone, was enough for a reader to call me and get the very first place on the new program! She loved what she saw, like the idea of attracting clients rather than chasing them, and called to book her place. Ironically, her inquiry and subsequent decision to work with me for a year, is a perfect example of the power of content marketing! I will be giving details on the new content marketing program in a few days. If you can’t wait, get in touch!

If you find the blog useful, rest assured that I will continue to work as hard as I can, to be of as much service as I can, to you and your business!

Do you write a business blog, but feel frustrated right now with your results?

I have a message for you: Don’t give up! The success you want may be just around the corner and the results can be exactly what you and your business need!

Here’s why

Most small business owners need to invest a considerable amount of money each year, if they want to introduce their services to targeted, prospective clients or customers. They invest in mail shots, radio and print advertising etc. Every time they want to reach those people, they have to pony up with some more money. It can be a costly exercise, especially for those small business owners who handle their own marketing and need to reach a lot of people in order to generate enough leads or sales, because they get the typical, crappy, small business owner response rates.

That’s how most small business owners market themselves. Yes, some attend networking events, hire telemarketing companies or hire PR firms etc, but they all involve spending often large sums of money, every time they need to generate sales or inquiries.

And then there’s business blogging

Most business bloggers, and I include myself here, start off with very few readers. It’s usually just us and a few contacts, who we share our blog with. Then, over a period of months the readership increases and if the content is attractive enough, we can build a sizeable, targeted audience. From this point forward, whenever we want to reach these extremely valuable people, we simply need to publish a post, (like this one.) There are no additional financial costs involved, for you to reach people and engage with them via your blog.

If we keep our content as valuable as possible to our readers and we focus our content, so it’s of direct interest to our core profile of clients, our audience increases in both volume and value. Once you have bought a URL (or web address) and some server space, there are no additional financial investments required to get started. Just a lot of work, creativity and the commitment to learn how to market all that great content. The rewards, however, are amazing and in some cases, life-changing.

Is it easy?

No! It requires time and commitment.

Is it worth the effort?

Yes! The results are easily the most powerful of any form of marketing I have encountered, as a marketing professional with 25 years experience behind me.

Powerful? Let’s take last week as an example. One of my blog posts was read by over three thousand people in just 6 hours, with thousands more reading it since. It was also featured on several websites. Last week I also did an audit of the financial value of business I generated directly via inquiries involving this blog, and it was over £100,000. I started this blog just 2 and a half years ago, with a £10 investment; which was the cost of the URL and the hosting that came with it!

Blogging and the law of return

Then last year, I invested in a fast, super-reliable dedicated server from WebFusion, who now generously sponsor this blog! This allowed me to be able to concentrate 100% of my blogging time on creating content, without worrying about technical issues or my server being down. Again, the numbers increased, in both readers and business inquiries, as I was able to produce more and more content, which people could access reliably.

Blogging and the need for speed

Whilst most forms of traditional marketing require a significant financial investment, they tend to reach people very quickly. As we live in an increasingly “instant” society, people like the idea of immediate results. It may cost 2k to send 5,000 prospective clients your latest mailing, but those letters can be on their doormats in a couple of days. Your blog, on the other hand, starts off a lot slower. Yes, it can be up and running for the cost of a lunch at Starbucks, but you will probably have to work at it for many months, before you can reach 5,000 people each week.

However…

What about when you HAVE managed to build a blog, which reaches 5,000 or 50,000 prospective clients each week?

At this point, you will probably want to improve your blog hosting and buy a nice looking blog theme so your site looks polished and professional, like the one I use here. I built this blog from scratch, using Headway blog theme software (affiliate link.) From that point onward, so long as you continue to invest the time required to publish worthwhile content and you learn how to make your blog as visible and shareable as possible, you will be building your own, increasingly valuable marketing / media asset!

Think about it:

You don’t need to pay someone for advertising, when you own a media asset yourself (your blog), which is read by more targeted prospective clients than their publication is.

You don’t need to invest in mail shots, when your marketing is being read by hundreds and then thousands of prospects every day of the week, every week of the year.

You may even get featured in The New York Times, just because they find value in what you have to say on your blog. It’s less likely one of your mail shots or ads will gain that kind of complimentary attention. The value to your blog of those kind of A-List links can also have an ongoing, positive impact on your Google ranking. Again, this builds the value of your blog as a media asset.

If you want to take your blog to the next level, here are a few ideas, based on the lessons I have learned over the past couple of years:

Decide in advance to persevere during the initial 6-12 months, whilst your blog gets established. Your blog should be seen as a medium to long term investment, not a quick fix.

Commit to putting as much highly valuable content on your blog as possible. When I was posting just once a week, the development of the blog was extremely slow. If you only publish 1 post a week, it will take you a month to publish just 4 posts. That’s 4 posts for people to share and 4 updates, to encourage people to return to your blog and check it out again. Give people a reason to visit your blog regularly, with frequently updated content. Make reading your blog a part of their routine.

If you find it hard to write more than once a week, you may be trying too hard to make each post perfect. Blog posts don’t need to be perfect every time. Give yourself permission to write “as well as you can” on any given day. The perfection mindset destroys more blogs than anything else, in my experience.

Learn how to write compelling posts, which people will want to read and share. The more good quality content you give away, the faster your blog will develop and the more people will value it.

Make your blog as easy to share as possible, using the kind of share options you see at the bottom of this post. It takes time for Google to start sending you significant, regular traffic; yet you can start getting share traffic immediately, by writing great content and sharing it with your social networks.

Read the top blogs in your niche and learn from them.

Read some crap blogs too and see what they are doing – So you can avoid it!

Ask people to subscribe to your blog, with a prominent subscriber box. Your subscribers are your most loyal readers and often your most valuable too.

Be relevant. Focus your content, so that it is of direct interest to your ideal client profile. Don’t try and write for everyone, as this dilutes the value of your writing.

Nothing of genuine commercial value is ever created on the quick! A successful business blog is no different. It takes time and commitment. However, if you are prepared to invest the time, learn the lessons and keep on keeping on, the results can be simply stunning.

Some of the best blog posts are also the shortest. Blog posts that offer information rich copy, with all the unnecessary fluff stripped out, get to the point quicker and save the reader valuable time. This post about social media experts is one of the most read on my blog and it’s just 112 words long!

Why do many commercial bloggers write mainly longer format posts?

From what people tell me, there seems to be 2 reasons. The first reason, is that it’s believed by many that unless a post is more than 300 words long, it will not rank well on search engines. I have seen enough evidence of this to believe there’s truth in it. However, if you are in the UK right now and you ask Google: “What is a social media expert?”, you will see that 112 word post I mentioned earlier on page 1 – Out of over 42Million results.

The second reason, which I am going to focus on in this post, is the belief that the longer a post is, the more valuable it will be, and the more people will want to read and share it. My experience over the past 24 years in Marketing, is that the quicker you can make a valid point, without all the fluff that typically weakens a message, the more impact your message has. Because of this, I think it’s worth adding some shorter blog posts to your commercial blog.

Seth Godin understands the value of brevity

One of the reasons Seth Godin’s blog is so popular, is that his posts are never any longer than they need to be. Seth’s blog posts are focused, information rich, but never too long. That’s because Seth understands the power of brevity. This means some of his posts are just 1 or 2 paragraphs in length. With Seth’s blog, you get all the juice, without having to wade through acres of bloated content.

Interestingly, I noticed a post on Seth’s blog recently, which is apparently his longest post of the year. If you look at the number of times people have ReTweeted that post, you will see that it was actually less popular (from a sharing perspective) than many of his very short posts. BTW: It still achieved over 900 ReTweets, which is amazing!

I’m not suggesting you ONLY write short blog posts

There are good reasons for writing longer format posts, (including SEO.) I wrote earlier this week about how to write more great blog posts, and it’s almost a thousand words long.

Here’s what I’m suggesting: The next time you have an interesting point you want to make, but you think it may be too short for a blog post, try publishing it anyway! You may be pleasantly surprised with the feedback you get. Don’t waste all your short, insightful ideas and opinions on Facebook or Twitter – Write them on your blog and then share them across your social networks.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!